The Vault Blog
- MONTH: September, 2012

European final tour - Part 2

Posted: September 28, 2012 15:52:50 by Anders Jakobson

September 24 - Keijo's 50th show!

The only stop in Holland was in Utrecht. It's actually only two countries that get visited more than once on this tour - Germany and Sweden. The venue in Utrecht was called Tivoli de Helling and was a really cool club with a good sized room and a very nice backstage area upstairs where we could hang out and relax. The people working at the club were total pro's and took really good care of us. Everything was pretty much top notch.

Enjoying a nice dinner at Tivoli de Helling.

Due to stormy weather the local support act Oathbreaker got delayed and it was actually not certain that they would show up in time, but they did and could play their stuff in front of a crowd that really wasn't filling up the room or particularly wild and crazy. It was a Monday after all. For me our show felt a bit like a Monday gig, although you hardly know what day of the week it is while you are on tour. Everyday is "Gigday"… I had too many distractions during the show - bad monitor, things not really positioned where I wanted them, loose screws on the cymbal stands and so forth. I wasn't really at my best and had a hard time to get into the flow and just deliver what I am supposed to deliver. Although I shouldn't put any blame on the audience for my mood, it felt quite dead in the room. It was silent between the songs in that particular way that it felt that Keijo - who had his 50th show with Nasum this night - had to drag the response out of the people.

To my surprise the crowd got very loud and active when we had finished the main set so we went up and played the scheduled extras. The show gradually got better and better and was at it's best when it was basically over. Strange, but that how it is sometimes.

September 25 - The Grindfather guests

To get to London we had to cross the canal via a ferry. I don't like ferries, but fortunately the water was calm enough so you could live through the circa 90 minutes the ferry ride took. A couple of hours later we arrived at Underworld in London and had a little time to do whatever before we had access to the club. I went on a hunt for a new pair of jeans as the only pair I have with me sort of died during the first couple of days. No luck with that, surprisingly, so I have to live with my broken shit for a while more.

While setting up the gear our special guest for the night arrived - Shane Embury. Initially he came just for the show but as he's made a few guest appearances with us in the past, we thought it would be great to graze the only UK date on the entire tour with some Embury madness. So we constructed a completely new setlist for the night as we've more or less played versions of the same set during the first five shows just to get warmed up. We were not the only band that changed their setlist tonight - Black Breath had to do the same thing, but for completely different reasons.

Meeting Shane is always a pleasure, and being on stage with him is an even bigger one!

At some point during the night, Black Breath's drummer Jaime hurt his left foot badly, so bad that he couldn't walk when we were at the ferry. A drummer's nightmare. After their soundcheck it was really obvious that the left foot was unusable and Black Breath had to dig forth all their "non-double bass" songs, which ended up in a really crusty set with mostly songs from their first couple of recordings. They sounded like a completely different band, but still got a great response from the audience.

Some minor distractions from my part led to some sloppy playing during parts of our show. That and the new setlist made the show less smooth than I had expected, but we found our groove at some point and the show got intense, sweaty and a really good one. It's always a pleasure to have Shane on stage, and he blasted out "The Masked Face" while Jesper had to be "only" the back-up singer, which eventually led to a stage dive into the audience. Having Shane on the stage also bookends the 20th anniversary, just like Rickard's guest appearance did back in Gothenburg. Without Shane and Napalm Death there wouldn't have been 20 years of Nasum. That's for sure.

September 26 - Jon's 100th show!

I believe we all slept through the ferry ride back to France and a few hours later we had arrived at Glazart in Paris. A quite good venue with some kind of "beach" appendix that might be very nice during the Summer. We did the usual routine - shuffled down some food and then loaded in all the stuff, and set it up.

After the soundcheck Janne, Urban, Jesper and I went together with Eric and Elijah from Black Breath into town via the subway for half and hour or so to visit the catacombs of Paris. This was very exciting and we were ready for a chilling sight. To our dismay we were too late and the catacombs were closed for the day! No catacombs, just a catastrophe! Instead we hung out at a café in the rain having a cup of coffee just to feel that we were away from the club, backstage room and bus. You need some time away every now and then.

The way to the catacombs. Thumbs down for it being closed, but thumbs up for some coffee!

Back at Glazart Coilguns had already started playing and before Black Breath played Sublime Cadaveric Decomposition kept the room warm. It was a really hot venue and we were virtually sweating our asses of during the show. Jaime had been to a doctor with his injured foot, but they didn't find anything broken or anything like that and he was able to perform as usual, so it was just London that got the crust version of Black Breath.

Our show was the final of the "anniversary shows" - Jon's 100th show with Nasum - and it was hot and crazy. The place was more or less packed, at least it felt so because there wasn't that much air in the room and quite sweaty. All in all a fun night.

September 27 - The wizard of CERN

The following day we were in Switzerland for the last time, yet again at Usine in Geneva. This venue was on the "European Grind Shift Tour" back in 2004, and yet again Mumakil supported us, just like back then. Coilguns was also on the bill, and when they played the venue was frighteningly empty… That changed during the night, thankfully, and in the end the show up was good.

In fear of repeating yesterday's fatal fail with the visit to the catacombs of Paris, Jesper, Urban and Eric went away pretty much directly after the load in to visit CERN - the European Organization for Nuclear Research which is in Geneva. The guys were away for quite some time and returned with a great experience richer, without having the possibility to see the particle accelerators though.

The rest of us basically stayed at the venue using the free internet to get some work done. The last couple of days have been more or less interNOT so it was nice to be able to communicate and work on some stuff.

During the intro for our show, Jesper suddenly said: "Hey, what are we playing tonight?", and we quickly decided on a set we've been playing for most of the final tour so far. It was just so funny to hear that virtually seconds before we entered the stage. Again the show was a good one. I had feared it to be a dull one judging from the poor attendance during the beginning of the night, but it turned out to be quite good and during the extras I surprised the band by starting a completely different song than what they had expected. And I did it by choice and not as a mistake!

Behind the scenes: Making of Suitman

Posted: September 27, 2012 16:34:11 by Anders Jakobson

The other day when I had time to kill I was going through my computer deleting files and such stuff. I found something that I like to share.

The "Suitman" is one of the few new t-shirt designs I did for the tour. It has unfortunately not been a huge seller, which is slightly disappointing as I like the design. Perhaps the combination of skulls and suits are a bit too overused but I still think it is a striking image.

Anyway, what I found was the three source images I used to make the design - an animal skull, a wedding suit model and some random splatter. So here it is, in graphic form - the making of the "Suitman" design:

European final tour - Part 1

Posted: September 24, 2012 14:47:23 by Anders Jakobson

September 20 - Back at Nosturi

The final tour started - not particularly unexpected - with another early morning wake up call, as I had to transport myself from Örebro to Arlanda Airport. The last time at Arlanda as a member of Nasum... Since I've seen too much of Arlanda this summer, that notion brought no nostalgic feelings what so ever!

Three and a half hours after my alarm clock rang I met up with the Stockholm guys and we did the last check in, the last security check and the last boarding. An hour in the air later, in which we actually travelled back in time… (as Finland is another timezone), we landed in Helsinki and were met at the airport by tour manager Janne and Niko from Fullsteam who eventually brought us into town and to the hotel close to the venue. The venue in question was Nosturi, a nice place by the harbor, that has a special place in the Nasum history. It was at this venue we had our very first Finnish show back in 2003. The show was the first of a four day tour with Rotten Sound, and it was also the last tour as a three piece. Urban had more or less joined the band, but didn't feel confident enough to perform on stage yet, so he actually sold merch on that particular tour.

At the venue we met Petri, our 9th addition to the tour party, who would join us to take care of the merch table during the final tour. Petri is a really good guy that I became friends with a couple of years ago when Coldworker toured with Misery Index and he took care of their merch. I love Petri and I love having him in our little gang. Apart from being our merch guy he actually also went up on stage as he sings in Famine Year who were our support act together with Hero Dishonest.

After soundcheck and food and waiting and support acts we started this tour with a really good show. The room was packed and we got a really nice vibe from the room. Jon, who loves Finland even made a little speech to the crowd at some point of the night. The overall feeling was good, but I felt really rusty as I hadn't played a single stroke since the Japanese shows. It was quite a tough task to perform as my muscles got numb pretty much after the first few songs. I had to cheat a little bit to be able to play all the blast parts, and it worked fine but I was quite exhausted after the show.

Although Helsinki definitively was part of the final tour, it felt like it really started in Gothenburg as it was there we were joined by Black Breath and moved into our mobile home so to speak. But obviously we had to fly again to get there, and not only once but twice. We had a short layover in Copenhagen and it felt so nice to realize that that actually were the last flights ever (as Nasum, that is). Might be a strange thing to complain about because usually airports and flights have some sort of exciting charge to them, but considering the sick amounts of airports we've visited and flights we've done were quite happy to say goodbye to them.

Unfortunately we were forced to stay at the Landvetter airport outside of Gothenburg for quite a while as the nightliner driver had gotten to another airport in the vicinity. But we found Black Breath who were more or less sleeping on their luggage. After almost two hours we could get on board our home for the coming weeks, a massive nightliner. Although it's quite big, you still have walk slightly bent inside the buss, but at least the bunks are large enough to sleep in so you don't feel like you've been buried alive.

The outside and inside of the nightliner.

One crooked bus ride later we got to Truckstop Alaska, a cool semi-secret club in Gothenburg. We had a few venues to choose from but chose Truckstop Alaska because it's the best. Jon, Urban and the Black Breath guys had previously visited the club, but the rest of us were virgins. But it sure was a cool place. Martin from At The Gates/Skitsystem was the promoter and he took good care of us.

This was the first show where we had our own equipment since the tour premiere in Örebro in May. After months of rented back line, mostly of high quality, it felt really great to set up my own drums again. In the break between the tours I had bought a new drum mat and put up all my drums and cymbal stands and marked them with tape, so it's pretty easy for Hannes and I to set it all up every night. As we were late and the sound check took quite some time things got a little bit stressed, but everything felt good for the show.

This was the 200th show of Nasum since the first one back in 1995. As a little celebration we invited original singer/drummer Rickard Alriksson to join us on the only "Rickard song" in the set - "Löpandebandsprincipen". Rickard lives in Gothenburg now so it was quite easy to arrange this. I got a crazy kick out of sharing the stage with Rickard again during the minute it took to introduce the song and play it. It was the third time Rickard did a guest appearence with us - the first one being the "Helvete" release party and the second time being at the Hultsfredsfestivalen, which pro shot footage most of you probably have seen. Any way, it was great and it really bookended the 20th anniversary.

The first and last Nasum singers performing together.

Truckstop Alaska was filled to the brink. Actually a few hundred people were left outside unable to come in. I believe that might a first for Nasum. I feel a little bad for this situation, but it was pretty clear from the start that you really had to be in time to get in as there were no pre-sales. Skitsystem opened the show, as they will in Malmö and Stockholm as well, and obviously they also have a special place in the Nasum history as we've shared both stages and a 7" EP with them in the past, not to forget that Mieszko recorded their "Enkelresa till rännstenen" album.

Our show felt good with a great response from the crowd. My muscles were working better but still not to 100%, but it was a good step in the right direction.

September 22 - Urban's 100th show!

The next morning we woke up in Copenhagen. The beauty of riding in a night liner is obviously that you travel while you sleep, unless you are in party mode and stay up all of the night. We were parked outside of Pumpehuset, pretty much in the center of the Danish capitol. A nice venue that I have visited before, but not with Nasum. After taking a short walk in the city in hunt for some breakfast it was time to load in the gear. I felt already that we've gotten a better routine for the load in part so it went quite quick. We had a lot of time for the soundcheck so Hannes and Antti took their job seriously to get the exact set up and sound they want for Black Breath and us.

On this particular show we were joined by some friends from the US tour - Canadian crust grinders Mass Grave, who are on a quite long European tour at the moment. It's always nice to see some familiar faces again.

Not that much happened during this day, just a lot of dead time to kill in the backstage room or in the bus, which is pretty much how the remaining days will be unless there's something nice to go and look at in the city. I guess most of us will have to come up with their own routines to handle the touring life. Jon has brought his own bowling balls and plans to visit a bowling alley in every city, if possible. That's one way to handle it.

Nasum, for the last time in Copenhagen.

The show, which was Urban's 100th with Nasum - the second of a few anniversaries coming up during the first week of the final tour - was again a good one. In the ongoing tale about my muscles they are pretty much in grind mode now, so from now on I can relax and just play (and ultimately stop reporting about them). We played in the smaller room of the Pumpehuset venue and the attendance was good, but not as crazy as in Helsinki and Gothenburg. But it was yet again good, and also the final time Nasum played in Denmark.

September 23 - Jesper's 150th show!

Four days into the tour, we left Scandinavia and got to mainland Europe, and to be specific Hamburg, Germany. The venue was Logo, a quite small place but it felt like a cool place when we got access to it. We all pretty much dived into the catering and stuffed our faces with whatever food that was there. Our FOH Antti needed to shave his head and Petri helped him, but for some reason they only shaved half of the head so now Antti looks like a really old version of himself. It so funny, because facing him you don't see the haircut but then you do and it's a funny surprise every time.

A "local" support band was added in the last minute, Cancer Clan with members of Cyness, who warmed up the audience before Black Breath crushed it as usual. Man, this band sounds great, especially now when Antti does their sound as well.

Petri setting up the merch in Hamburg.

Again, not much happened during this day, apart from a special visit from out Swedish booking agent Silvester who happened to be in Hamburg due to some work related issues. Silvester has been really good to us and we have a mutual appreciation for each others work during this crazy year.

We totally forgot to announce from stage that the show was Jesper's 150th with Nasum… Bummer, but never mind. Yet again this was a good show in which Keijo got into a beef with a pole on the stage… Not a singer's best friend. During the end of the show we had some amp trouble which temporarily got us out of the flow, but we were able to wrap it up nicely and even play some extra songs. The Hamburg crowd were good to us!

A few words about the Gothenburg and Stockholm shows

Posted: September 12, 2012 18:19:51 by Anders Jakobson

There seems to be some confusion regarding the Gothenburg and Stockholm shows regarding tickets, presales and access, and since we've noticed that it seems like a lot of people actually will travel to Sweden and come to the shows, we feel it's necessary to share the info that we do know.

Gothenburg: There are no presales for this show and the tickets will be 150 SEK at the door. However - to be able to get in you apparently need to be a member of the Truckstop Alaska "community". This is a free service, and for all you non-Swedish speaking people, here's a quick tutorial:

1. Go to: http://www.truckstopalaska.com/
2. Click on "MEDLEM" to the left.
3. Write a) First name, b) Family name, c) Birthdate in the format YYMMDD - i.e. 770119 for January 19 1977 - and just write "0000" in the second box, d) Email address.
4. Send the form and pray to the Gods of Grind that it works.

Stockholm: Yes, it IS a free show, at least until 21.00 (9 PM) when they will start charging at the door. HOWEVER: as it is a free show it might be "sold out" before 21.00, so obviously we can't guarantee access to the show if you show up after 21.00 or perhaps even before that. And there is no presales either so in other words: be there in time, and why shouldn't you - the support acts rock!

All right, that is what we know at this point. Hope this helps some of you.